Clinical therapeutics for emerging infections

Project leader: Dr Xin Hui Chan, NIHR Clinical Lecturer

The overarching aim of Xin Hui’s work at the Pandemic Sciences Institute is to accelerate the development and deployment of safe and effective drugs for high-threat and emerging infections. Of particular interest are academic clinical trials to address market failures in drug development for infectious diseases with pandemic potential. The current focus is on interpandemic discovery and development of a library of smart cross-reactive monoclonal antibody candidates for high-risk viral families.

Monoclonal antibodies are an important anti-infective drug class. They are important, for instance, in the rapid and long-lasting protection of populations at higher risk of severe disease, for whom vaccination would be less safe and effective if even accessible.

In addition to providing clinical support to drug discovery and pre-clinical development, Xin Hui designs and implements clinical trials to derisk and optimise further development of promising drug candidates. These include early-phase trials, such as controlled human infection studies and later-phase trials in exposed or infected patients around the world.

Xin Hui also works closely with a wide range of stakeholders to:

• ensure this development is responsive to the needs of communities where these diseases are endemic, and
• support timely and equitable access to these medicines for the populations who need them most. 

The goal of Xin Hui and her colleagues is to:

• expand the range of therapeutic options for compassionate use and clinical trials at the outset of any viral pandemic, as well as
• provide a primed pipeline for the accelerated equitable development and deployment of therapeutics at the very outset of Disease X.

January 2023